Madhabi Mukherjee

Madhabi Mukherjee Biography

Madhabi Mukherjee is a reputed actress of yesterdays who worked in Bengali movies. She is the first Bengali actress to receive National awards for best female actress. She won the awards in the year 1969 for her role as Supriya in the movie, Dibratrir Kabya. She is only the third Indian actress to win National awards. She played the lead role in Satyajit Ray's masterpiece Charulata, which made her ‘all time great heroine’ of Bengali cinema. She played the role Charu, a bored and neglected housewife of Calcutta in this movie, for which Bengalis still remembers her most. She remained at the top during 1960’s. Her acting potentials were well utilized by great directors - Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit Ray.

Madhabi’s original name is Madhuri Mukherjee. She was brought up in Kolkata and she joined theatre at a younger age. She has performed with great theatre artists of Bengal - Nirmalendu Lahiri, Sisir Bhaduri, Ahindra Choudhury and Chhabi Biswas. In 1950, she debut silver screen as a child artist with the movie, Kankantala Light Railway. Her first big break was Mrinal Sen's Baishey Shravan released in the year 1960. The movie is a tragedy where Madhubi played the role of a 16 year old girl who marries a middle-aged man. She played lead role in Ritwik Ghatak’s great movies like Subarnarekha, Komal Gandhar and Meghe Dhaka Tara. Her major works with Satyajit Ray include – Charulatha, Mahanagar and Kapurush. Mahanagar released in the year 1963 was the first one. In her opinion, she has never seen such a woman centric role before.

During 1970’s though she witnessed a downfall comparing the era of 60’s, she managed to do a few memorable roles. Some of these roles include - Calcutta 71, Biraj Bou, Streer Patra, Ganadevata, Chhandaneer, Bancharamer Bagan and Chokh. In 2000, she appeared in Rituparno Ghosh’s Utsab. After Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit Ray, she has worked with Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Tapan Sinha and a few more leading names of the industry. She married Bengali film actor Nirmal Kumar, but separated. It’s rumoured that she had a romantic relationship with director Satyajit Ray.

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Updated: January 02, 2014